Gender double standards, which are among the effects of gender stereotypes, are reflected in Sylvia Plath's semi-autobiographical novel The Bell Jar, published in 1963. This opera tells the story of a young woman named Esther Greenwood, who is extremely intelligent but begins to consider suicide in New York during her internship at a magazine company. One of the main reasons for her suicide attempt is that she cannot bear the weight of the gender double standard imposed by society. Society and the people around her expect her to play the traditional role of a woman, but she cannot adapt to such a constraining image. This limited gender role is supported by social activities such as education, marriage, sexual freedom prescriptions, and career choices in the novel. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay First, gender double standards exist in education and career in The Bell Jar. The society Plath describes provides education for women, but Esther poignantly describes the education of the young women staying at the Amazon Hotel: “They all went to fancy secretarial schools like Katy Gibbs, where they had to wear hats and stockings and gloves to class, or they had just graduated from places like Katy Gibbs and were secretaries to executives and were just hanging around in New York waiting to get married to some career man or whatever” (56). Esther's descriptions imply that women's education is useless because both educated and uneducated women both waited to get married instead of working. In the novel, some women are forced to work alone because the men they rely on fall to disability or death. Esther's mother can be cited as an example: “My mother taught shorthand and typing to many city college students and did not come home until mid-afternoon” (115). Society's double standards produce these limitations in women's careers. Although Esther gets a college scholarship to major in English (a seemingly masculine pursuit), her mother continues to ask her to study shorthand, because shorthand was a stable and secure job. Such work was prescribed to women and accepted by the society of the time. Plath describes Esther's mother's attitude toward Esther's more cerebral specialization: “I didn't know shorthand either. This meant I couldn't get a good job after college. My mother kept telling me that no one wanted a major in plain English” (76). This is not only Esther's mother's point of view, but also Esther's worldview in general. Plath uses specific and well-designed vocabulary to show how Esther deals with such uncertainty about her career: “The only thing was, when I tried to imagine myself in some job, quickly jotting down line after line of shorthand, my mind went blank. There wasn't a job I wanted to do where you used shorthand” (122). Even worse, women were forced to give up their careers due to the societal pressures around them. Dodo is one of the examples in the novel, a woman who gives up her career or perhaps who has never had a career. After all, "Dodo raised his six children—and would no doubt raise his seventh—on Rice Krispies, peanut butter and marshmallow sandwiches, vanilla ice cream, and gallons and gallons of Hoods milk" (116). , Plath had a painful marriage. In the novel, Esther is subjected to the virgin/whore dichotomy, a troubling standard that society uses to.